Pokemon is such an interesting series. There’s nothing else out there even close to its size. As the highest-grossing media franchise in the world, odds are if you’re a fan of video games, you have some sort of relationship with Pokemon. If you’re like me, that relationship has changed over the last several years.
I’ve loved Pokemon since I was a kid, and I still love a lot of the characters and monsters that I grew up loving. Until recently, I was a big fan of the games as well, having put hundreds of hours into Sapphire and Pearl in elementary school, but Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Scarlet broke something in me. There was a piece of glass inside my heart that was cracked by the two games, and I’m not sure it can ever be repaired.
Pokemon has shown me the direction it’s heading in as a video game franchise and I think this is where I get off. Don’t worry, Game Freak, there are no hard feelings, it’s been a fun ride, but where you’re going, I just can’t follow.
Modern Pokemon Games
It’s not a novel take that recent Pokemon games leave something to be desired. They’re pretty ugly across the board, a lot of their mechanics feel underbaked, and the pivot from more linear experiences to go-you-own-way open worlds hasn’t resonated with me in the same way that similar transitions have worked with franchises like Zelda.
Modern Pokemon games like Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet feel like they’re proof of concept tech demos more than fully realized games: a handful of cool ideas that haven’t been fleshed out enough to carry a 30-40 hour experience.
For example, Scarlet and Violet let players choose which order they want to tackle the game’s gym battles in across its massive open world, a departure from the linear way they’ve been presented in the past. That freedom to choose has been lauded as an example of Scarlet and Violet’s open-ended design.
However, the gym leaders’ Pokemon have set experience levels, meaning that there’s a clear route that players are meant to follow; otherwise, they risk wandering into high-level areas and getting demolished. My time with Pokemon Scarlet was spent wiping the floor with the gym leaders when I was doing them in the appropriate order and then having the floor wiped with me when I gave the game’s open-ended design a chance. There was no middle ground to be found.
pokemon scarlet and violet, female character
Pokemon Legends: Arceus suffered from horrible pacing in a different way: because of its insistence on feeding information to the player in the slowest way possible. Instead of being able to quickly read through the game’s dialogue, the cutscenes all featured extremely slow-moving characters who slowly slink into frame, to say not much of anything, before slowly slinking away, forcing scenes that could be summarized in a handful of words to waste five minutes of your life.
This isn’t an itemized list of all my issues with Pokemon’s current era of design, just a few examples of what’s made the series much less enjoyable as of late. My main takeaway from the last few games is that Pokemon games are going to be getting bigger and bigger while respecting my time less and less, thanks to poor design choices and the need to rush games out the door that needed a lot more time to cook.
I’m Just Different Now, And That’s Okay
I would love it if Game Freak did some reflecting on how to drastically improve the experiences they’ve been developing, but, with how big Pokemon is, I don’t think the studio has the time to work on refining new ideas. I get the vibe that they need new games every two years, no matter if they’re finished or not.
I don’t think I’m asking Pokemon to change because I don’t think it can. I think I’ve just outgrown the series, and that’s okay. There are still plenty of people who love everything that Pokemon has been doing and the direction it’s taking with the Legends series, as well as the mainline games.
My taste in games has matured over the years, and I have less patience than I used to for games that are packed to the brim with little annoyances and time-wasters. For me, those sorts of things add up until I can’t see any of the good things they’re bringing to the table.
As much as it would shock my younger self, I have no interest in picking up the latest Pokemon games at release, or ever. The new trailers for Pokemon Legends: Z-A make me feel nothing but irritation as it reminds me of the problems I had with Legends: Arceus.
I’m happy to still enjoy Pokemon as a concept, to talk to the younger kids in my life about it as they get excited for the new games, to buy a cute plushie for my fiance every now and then (like when she discovered how adorable Alolan Vulpix is), but I think it’s time for me to let go of playing the games. I’m happy to get off the train to free up a seat for someone who really wants to be there and hear about the journey when they get back, to let my Butterfree fly off with the rest of the pack into the sunset.
